NEW DELHI: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Haryana government have agreed to shift all the three toll plazas on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway beyond Manesar. The decision came at a meeting held between Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and highway minister C P Joshi on Thursday.

Sources said the meeting considered three options to bring relief to lakhs of commuters who are stuck in jams. In the first case, NHAI could push for contract termination since the concessionaire Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL) has failed to meet the commitments it had earlier agreed before the Delhi High Court.

The second option can see NHAI will go for compulsory acquisition of the project under "political force majeure event" in view of the Haryana government requesting to make the stretch toll free. In that case, Haryana would make the termination payment, which would be around Rs 300 crore. Another option would be accepting Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) proposal to collect toll at Bilaspur, where traffic moving towards Jaipur and Delhi will pay total toll charges that they would have paid at the existing toll plazas. Last week, IDFC had submitted before the HC that once all the parties agree to its proposal, it would take 90 days to bring in a new player replacing DGSCL.

However, it would take over the project from DGSCL within 15 days and will operate it. IDFC says the present debt to the project is about Rs 1,570 crore and NHAI "will recognize the full amount as debt".